Olivia Gatwoods Debut Poetry Collection Is The Book I Wish I Had As A Teenage Girl

To say Olivia Gatwood is a powerhouse of a poet still somehow feels like an undersell. Widely known for her spoken word performances, Gatwood has just released her debut poetry collection, . With unflinching honesty and a sharp tongue, Gatwood consistently breaks down stereotypes and explores the joys, the triumphs, the expectations, the violences, the questioning and all that comes with contemporary American womanhood.

(Basically, this book is GOOD. Seriously, it’s good.)

If you need a little more convincing, I’ll let Olivia do what she does best. I’ve included 8 of my personal favorite excerpts. But honestly, it feels a bit like picking a favorite child. You love them all. You really, really do.

1.

the word lymphoma and then, the concept of the prefix, how it explains where the tumor lives

could say goodbye.”

2.

“blush so pink i saw it on a commercial blush so pink on cable television blush so pink the model dips her finger in the jar and slides it across her cupcake cheeks so pink i save up seven dollars so pink i walk to the pharmacy so pink the makeup aisle is a soda fountain strawberry milk in the mini carton blush so pink like panther like raspberry lemonade feather boa baby shower so pink like holiday for love blush so pink i wish it was my name”

3.

“Reina is upset that I am American and not rich. These two details disrupt everything Reina has ever been made to believe in the church of MTV, in which she learned that along with a new American best friend, Reina deserves a new American best friends momsuburban queen and a new American best friends brother who will take her to second base in our basement, but unfortunately for Reina, we dont have a basement, we live in the Sunset Motel where I collect snails and eat chicken and ketchup sandwiches for dinner.”

4.

“i slam down the glass until it cracks up the side and now the game is about who will still drink from it, who will risk shards in the belly, who will cut up their insides for a pack of newports and its not that i even want the cigarettes, its just that i am not afraid of blood which is also part of being a girl. but being the only girl means making yourself lose when youve won too much so i bounce the coin off the rim of the shot glass and let johnny slice me open.”

5.

Manic Pixie Dream Girl says

Ill be a vintage dress with an empty prescription bottle, good girl, just bad enough

a burp and a curtsy,

let me be not too pretty hair fried from all of that pink dye

sex when you need it puppet when youre bored, let me build myself smaller than you,

let me apologize when I get caught acting bigger than you. Let me always wait for this, let me work for this.”

6.

“I felt like a school teacher who goes home to no children, a cab driver without a car,

a therapist who cries in the middle of the night and cant figure out why.”

7.

“i am twenty-four and have never cried. once, a boy told me he doesnt ‘believe in labels’ so i embroidered the word chauvinist on the back of his favorite coat. a boy said he liked my hair the other way so i shaved my head instead of my pussy.”

8.

“they will tell you home is safe zone no, bitch face is safe zone, bitch face is home bitch face is cutting off the ladder willing to burn in the apartment if it means he cant get in.”